Wednesday December 22, 2021
Reaction “not excluded”
The Kremlin outraged the broadcasting of “RT DE”
“RT DE” has been receivable via satellite in Germany since December 16. Because the Russian broadcaster does not have a license to broadcast, the Berlin-Brandenburg media authority stops broadcasting. Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are outraged.
The German media supervisory authorities have stopped broadcasting the Russian broadcaster “RT DE” via satellite. The European satellite operator Eutelsat has stopped broadcasting the German-language program, the Berlin-Brandenburg media authority (mabb) told the AFP news agency. For the program, which has been running since December 16 and is geared towards Germany, no broadcasting license has been applied for from mabb, nor has it been granted.
The RT broadcaster is considered to be the Kremlin’s international propaganda tool. According to mabb, the production company has until the end of the year to comment on the matter after media law proceedings were initiated against RT DE Productions GmbH based in Berlin on December 17th. She had already applied for a satellite license in Luxembourg in the summer to circumvent German legislation. “Luxembourg rejected the notification with reference to the jurisdiction of the Federal Republic of Germany,” added the mabb.
The termination of the program could further strain the already strained relations between Berlin and Moscow. However, the German-language news channel RT can still be seen on its website after Youtube blocked the channel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called for an end to “discrimination” against RT. In a statement on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that he could not rule out retaliatory measures for the blockade of satellite transmissions. “Right from the start, the German authorities did everything to give RT a bad image in German society,” he complained. “Until recently, we did not want to go the same way by suppressing the press, but I cannot rule out that we will react,” Lavrov added.
Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit and a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office called the process a “matter for the state media authorities”. The Foreign Office spokeswoman also did not want to comment on possible reactions from the Russian side.